Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PAINTING (Power and Information Integration Technologies in Microgrids)
Período documentado: 2021-02-01 hasta 2023-01-31
To reduce carbon emissions, the use of green energy has been the consensus in Europe and worldwide. For example, the UK National Grid Electricity System Operator has announced that it will be able to fully operate Great Britain’s electricity system with zero carbon by 2025. Due to the characteristics of distribution, fluctuation and intermittent of renewable energy resources, conventional centralised power system faces serious challenges. Microgrids (MG) has been proposed for better integrating growing distributed renewable power generations and energy storages, and will be basic blocks in future decentralised smart power systems.
Three-layer hierarchical control schemes have been widely used in power electronics based power systems, and the time scales of control increases with the layers. The bottom layer focuses on the local power control of interface power converters, and usually no communication is considered. The middle layer achieves cooperative power control and the top layer is for overall management of the system, both of which rely on information and communication technologies (ICT). Usually dedicated communication systems are adopted, such as optical fibre, Ethernet and WiFi, which have been widely researched and mature enough.
Due to the small size of MG, including cooperative control at the bottom layer is desirable, which will bring great advantages in system reliability and response time. However, it is a challenge since the bottom layer control is sensitive to communication delay and reliability, and many traditional communication methods are not suitable for this application. As a result, many bottom layer cooperative control methods have been proposed without communication (e.g. Droop control). A 10 million € EU JRC project “Cellular Smart Grid Platform” (CSGriP) adopts grid frequency as communication signals for power system safe and reliable operation. However, for all these strategies, the system performance is rough and limited due to the lack of data exchange among power converters and between the bottom layer and upper layers. Therefore, a new solution is urgently needed to effectively integrate reliable ICT at the bottom power converter control layer, so that information can be generated and transferred through power conversion to improve the performance of the bottom layer and provide some information for upper layers, so that the power system can be better managed. This is the ultimate aim of this Fellowship to exploit the novel titled Power And Information iNtegration Technologies (PAINT), including two sub-topics: integrated communication and power colouring, which combines the Fellow’s interdisciplinary background of power electronics and communication with the advanced communication and MG expertise of the EU hosts.
Three-layer hierarchical control schemes have been widely used in power electronics based power systems, and the time scales of control increases with the layers. The bottom layer focuses on the local power control of interface power converters, and usually no communication is considered. The middle layer achieves cooperative power control and the top layer is for overall management of the system, both of which rely on information and communication technologies (ICT). Usually dedicated communication systems are adopted, such as optical fibre, Ethernet and WiFi, which have been widely researched and mature enough.
Due to the small size of MG, including cooperative control at the bottom layer is desirable, which will bring great advantages in system reliability and response time. However, it is a challenge since the bottom layer control is sensitive to communication delay and reliability, and many traditional communication methods are not suitable for this application. As a result, many bottom layer cooperative control methods have been proposed without communication (e.g. Droop control). A 10 million € EU JRC project “Cellular Smart Grid Platform” (CSGriP) adopts grid frequency as communication signals for power system safe and reliable operation. However, for all these strategies, the system performance is rough and limited due to the lack of data exchange among power converters and between the bottom layer and upper layers. Therefore, a new solution is urgently needed to effectively integrate reliable ICT at the bottom power converter control layer, so that information can be generated and transferred through power conversion to improve the performance of the bottom layer and provide some information for upper layers, so that the power system can be better managed. This is the ultimate aim of this Fellowship to exploit the novel titled Power And Information iNtegration Technologies (PAINT), including two sub-topics: integrated communication and power colouring, which combines the Fellow’s interdisciplinary background of power electronics and communication with the advanced communication and MG expertise of the EU hosts.
Theoretical analysis of HFSS injection method based on DC/DC power converter has been developed, which is achieved by control the reference of the output voltage/current via control loop, and has been validated by simulation results. Based on this HFSS injection method, small signal mathematical model is constructed to describe the characteristics of amplitude and frequency. The above research corresponds to RO1 in the Proposal, and is the basis of the whole project.
Based on the injected HFSS of DC/DC power converter, FSK, PSK and DPSK data modulation methods are employed to load data to the HFSS in the input/output voltage/current, and power/data multiplexing transmission is achieved. Data demodulation method is also developed. The integrated communication has been validated by simulations and experiments, but multi-ary data modulation methods and trade-off between power conversion indexes and communication indexes are to be done in the further research. The above research achievements have been included in a transaction paper, which is to be submitted recently. All the research corresponds to RO2 in the Proposal.
Research on power colouring corresponding to RO3 in the Proposal has also gotten some progress. Basic power colouring method has been designed, which is adaptable in simple distributed power system, with little transmission resistance. A lot of further research needs to be done based on more complex conditions.
Based on the injected HFSS of DC/DC power converter, FSK, PSK and DPSK data modulation methods are employed to load data to the HFSS in the input/output voltage/current, and power/data multiplexing transmission is achieved. Data demodulation method is also developed. The integrated communication has been validated by simulations and experiments, but multi-ary data modulation methods and trade-off between power conversion indexes and communication indexes are to be done in the further research. The above research achievements have been included in a transaction paper, which is to be submitted recently. All the research corresponds to RO2 in the Proposal.
Research on power colouring corresponding to RO3 in the Proposal has also gotten some progress. Basic power colouring method has been designed, which is adaptable in simple distributed power system, with little transmission resistance. A lot of further research needs to be done based on more complex conditions.
Progress beyond the state of the art
The proposed integrated communication technology requires no extra hardware for data generation and transmission, and the signal strength can be controlled according to the channel noise and transmission distance, which is novel and advantageous in cost, reliability and complexity. Besides, peer-to-peer power tracing can be achieved by power colouring, which is novel and makes great sense in power trading.
PAINT subverts the traditional MG control scheme, inducing reliable and economical integrated communication technology at bottom layer and establishing connections between bottom layer and upper layers, providing power flow information for upper layers for advanced control.
Expected result
D1.1 Small signal modelling based on power converters with HFSS injected. D1.2 Influence between power conversion and signal generation revealed. D1.3 Prototype system constructed and experiment developed.
D2.1 Data modulation methods developed and validated. D2.2 Data demodulation methods designed and validated.
D3.1 Impedance characteristics achieved by each load device using distributed method. D3.2 Distributed power tracing achieved and experimentally validated.
D4.1 Noise analysis during conversion and transmission process. D4.2 Channels including power converter and transmission power line modelled. D4.3 Multidisciplinary analysis for power tracing precision improvement.
D5.1 Protocols designed for improved hierarchical control. D5.2 Experiment developed of PAINT in DC MG test platform.
Potential impact
1. Enhancing the future career prospects of the researcher after the fellowship
2. The results of the project will be disseminated and published to the most extent via multiple communication platforms such as printed publications, conference presentations, workshops, seminars and so on, targeting a variety of potential users and partners including power engineering companies, infrastructural designers, engineers, managers, contractors and researchers throughout Europe and the world. Specifically, the following measures will be implemented:
3. Exploitation of results and intellectual property rights
The proposed integrated communication technology requires no extra hardware for data generation and transmission, and the signal strength can be controlled according to the channel noise and transmission distance, which is novel and advantageous in cost, reliability and complexity. Besides, peer-to-peer power tracing can be achieved by power colouring, which is novel and makes great sense in power trading.
PAINT subverts the traditional MG control scheme, inducing reliable and economical integrated communication technology at bottom layer and establishing connections between bottom layer and upper layers, providing power flow information for upper layers for advanced control.
Expected result
D1.1 Small signal modelling based on power converters with HFSS injected. D1.2 Influence between power conversion and signal generation revealed. D1.3 Prototype system constructed and experiment developed.
D2.1 Data modulation methods developed and validated. D2.2 Data demodulation methods designed and validated.
D3.1 Impedance characteristics achieved by each load device using distributed method. D3.2 Distributed power tracing achieved and experimentally validated.
D4.1 Noise analysis during conversion and transmission process. D4.2 Channels including power converter and transmission power line modelled. D4.3 Multidisciplinary analysis for power tracing precision improvement.
D5.1 Protocols designed for improved hierarchical control. D5.2 Experiment developed of PAINT in DC MG test platform.
Potential impact
1. Enhancing the future career prospects of the researcher after the fellowship
2. The results of the project will be disseminated and published to the most extent via multiple communication platforms such as printed publications, conference presentations, workshops, seminars and so on, targeting a variety of potential users and partners including power engineering companies, infrastructural designers, engineers, managers, contractors and researchers throughout Europe and the world. Specifically, the following measures will be implemented:
3. Exploitation of results and intellectual property rights